November 27, 2010

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Ever in search of a better pie crust I was trilled to try out this month's recipe for pasta frolla, Italy's contribution to the pastry dough world. I made our host's variation that adds in coconut flour and whole wheat pastry flour to supplement the all-purpose flour. For the fat I used a combination of two thirds solid extra virgin coconut oil with one third Earth Balance margarine. I filled my tart with the spiced autumnberry jam I made earlier in the month. Then because Alex and I nibbled too much on the scraps, which were very tasty, I added some pecans on top for crunch and decoration. It was a simple but tasty tart that I brought along to a Black Friday lunch with my parents. Thanks for the challenge Simona!

November 13, 2010

The wild autumn berries on our land have been ripe for a few weeks now. Autumn berry is a more attractive common name I found for autumn olive berries, scientifically known as Elaeagnus umbellata. We have a ton of these invasive shrubs on our property and while they make for tasty snacking on hikes they shine the most in jam and fruit leather.

My son Alex and I picked a big load and I decided to spice up, literally, one batch of this year's jam. Since I find the berry's flavor similar to cranberries, I chose to flavor them like my favorite cranberry relish. This relish, which I typically make for Thanksgiving, includes oranges, cinnamon and ginger. I also was craving fruit and black pepper together so I gave the jam a little extra heat with freshly ground black pepper. To try out some of the jam I made lemon scones with coconut milk yogurt. The scones were a special request from Alex and a great match for the jam.

*To make the berry pulp: Pull the berries from their stems, wash and drain them. Add them to a pan with 1/2 cup of water for every 4 cups of berries and cook over medium high heat until the seeds are separating from the fruit flesh. Use a food mill to remove the seeds. Cool and store the prepared pulp in the fridge until needed. Note that the pulp will separate into a milky liquid with red particles when cooled in the fridge. You will probably need at least 8 cups of berries to get the required 5 cups of pulp.

-Preheat your oven to 400 degress F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
-Sift or whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then after that is whisked or sifted well add in the zest and stir or whisk to evenly distribute.
-Cut in the solid coconut oil with a fork or pastry cutter until there are no pieces of solid oil larger than a pea.
-Add the yogurt and stir in just until the dough comes together.
-Scoop with a medium disher (mini ice cream scoop) onto the lined baking sheet and press down the mounds slightly. Or you can gather the dough into a flattened circle and cut into wedges.
-Sprinkle over the pearl or coarse sugar.
-Bake for ~12 minutes until light golden brown.

Penny came along for the berry picking.

Later that evening I found a bunch of berries that had fallen in her hood and gotten smashed, eww!

She and Fritz love to look out the doors and windows together.

P.S. Thanks to all those who are rooting for me in the Iron Foodie challenge. I got in! The box of mystery ingredients should be arriving early next week. Alex and I can't wait to see what's inside!

November 2, 2010

Marx Foods and the Foodie BlogRoll are teaming up to sponsor the first Iron Foodie challenge! 25 chosen contestants will receive a package of 8 ingredients from Marx Foods' exotic collection of edibles. There could be geoduck or black chicken or baby coconuts or matsutake mushrooms or fennel pollen!!! Then the contestants will have to use 3 of the given ingredients to create a dish that could win $200 in store credit. To begin the selection process I'm submitting these five questions so they can evaluate my worthiness. Cross your fingers for me!

1. Why do you want to compete in this challenge?I'm addicted cooking competition shows and would love a little taste of the excitement. My eight year old son and I watch shows together and he would love to be the guest judge and taste my entry.

2. Limitations of time/space notwithstanding, whose kitchen would you like to spend the day in & why? Julia Child, Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria, James Beard, Marie-Antoine Careme, or The Swedish Chef?Marie-Antoine Careme. I'd love to see the work that went into such elaborate food without the aid of blenders, food processors, stand mixers and all the other gadgets we have today. It would be fun even if I was turning the spit all day-- I would miss my iPad though.

3. What morsel are you most likely to swipe from family & friends’ plates when they aren’t looking?Any crispy pork fat--stray bacon, crunchy end bits from barbecue, a bit of caramelized ham fat. It's a public service I provide free of charge.

4. Sum your childhood up in one meal.Cold tofu, cheese pirogi, and butter-dipped steamed artichokes. As odd as this combination sounds it would not have been unusual for me as a kid.

5. The one mainstream food you can’t stand?Store bought cookies. Cookies are ridiculously easy to make and the store bought ones taste like cardboard.